By J. Buckman> Esq. 



233 



on the banks of the streams so marshy as greatly to injure its value. 

 It was therefore deemed expedient to make a straight water-course, 

 by which means the waters from Latton would fall into the Thames 

 lower down in its course, and so render a drainage of the low-lying 

 meadows practicable. It was in the construction of this new 

 water-course that the coins and other Roman objects were met 

 with, and they were found exactly at the point where the new 

 conduit starts from the angle of the older one. 



These remains consist of 52 coins, 34 of which were tabulated 

 by Mr. Frederick Bravender, and 18 are more or less illegible. 

 The other articles were a portion of a twisted armilla and a fine 

 fibula, a cutting instrument of iron, a spear head likewise of iron, 

 and a horse's bit of the same material. 



These objects were found in such a wonderful state of preservation, 

 some of the coins being as bright and sharp as when first struck, 

 and the iron (steel ?) objects being absolutely capable of sharpening 

 or polishing, that they cannot fail to attract attention. 



This state of preservation is due to the manner in which 

 they had been deposited. As described to me, the soil for some 

 distance consisted of a hard rubbly concrete, and it was in this 

 concreted matter that the objects were found. This, it would 

 seem though forming the banks of the stream, was perfectly 

 impervious to water, and its absolute dryness had tended to 

 preserve the coins and implements in as good a condition as 

 when first placed there. 



The peculiar brightness of some of the coins of Domitian, 

 Trajan and Hadrian, almost equalling in this respect the fine 

 gold coins of Yalens and Valentinianus, which I have found at 

 Corinium, convinced me that they must at least have been made 

 of a metal similar in quality to the Mosaic gold with which 

 the cheap French jewellery, now so much used, is fabricated. 

 It is distinct from the Roman bronze which was mostly 

 coined in early periods, as well as in the latter part of Roman 

 rule here. 



Now the coins from Latton were evidently of the two kinds, 

 namely, the bright or brass coin, and the dark or bronze ones, 



